Way to encourage a stereotype

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Yes. Yes it is. Most people say the best phrase is "I'd like to order a beer" But I think it's "Where's the bathroom?"

Duh. After you order and consume the beer or beers, you'll need to visit the toilet eventually.

[Jester]

Yes. Yes it is. Most people say the best phrase is "I'd like to order a beer" But I think it's "Where's the bathroom?"

That's funny, as for years I've told people that the second most important phrase to know in Spanish is "Un mas cerveza, por favor." They then, naturally, ask what the most important phrase is, which I then tell them in a desperate tone: "Donde son los banos?"

For those of you that speak ZERO Spanish, the two phrase above are "Another beer, please" and "Where are the bathrooms?"

[edible_hat]

My parents have a friend who has been travelling all over the world and can say "Yes", "No", "How much?" and "where's the toilet?" in around a dozen languages (as well as being fluent in English (of course), French and Afrikaans)

[Samaliel]

Rincewind would add "Please, don't kill me !" to the essentials sentence to know when travelling abroad.

Also, in French, you'd better ask "Où sont les toilettes ?" rather than "Où est la salle de bains ?", unless you're in a private home, where the privy often is in an actual bathroom.

[friendofjimmyk]

David Sedaris has written some very funny books. They are short stories and if you ever want a good sophisticated laugh, pick up "Me Talk Pretty One Day" or "Dress Your Family in Courdoroy (sp?) and Denim". Very funny books.

Anyway...in one of the books (I think "Dress") he talks about how he moved to France to be with his boyfriend. He spoke no French, but of course, being from the states - perfect English. He was riding the train home one day and some of these lovely Amurikan Torist got on the train and sat near where he was standing. (Full train, he was standing holding a rail and they sat in some seats that opened - or something like that) He overheard their entire conversation and their thoughts about how they needed to watch their bags because they were sure the smelly French man standing next to them was a thief. He listened to their entire berating conversation a good portion directed at him. It was very funny although an embarrasing representation of Americans.

[Damien]

Duh. After you order and consume the beer or beers, you'll need to visit the toilet eventually.

ahh the first two phrases I learnt when I first arrived here from Australia....

'Sumimasen, biru kudasai'

then, while doing a characteristic cross legged dance:

'Sumimasen, o-toyre doko desu ka?'

[Tireana Dorcha]

that reminds me of living in Reno, when tourists would complain about how high gas prices are and residents should be ashamed of their city for taking advantage of tourists by having high prices... it's like, hello asshole, guess what you will pay those prices for a week, we will pay those prices every week of every month of the year. Or do they think that all we have to do is walk into the station and tell the clerk "bob johnson" and the price magically goes down 30cents.

Oh boy do I wish there was a way to do that...

On the note of tourists: I make my appologies to the Orlando residents that have to deal with all of us silly vacationers. Being there only a week and having to deal with the loony out of town drivers, I don't know how y'all manage it.

[Shards]

Dear friends and neighbors of the world community,

There are two kinds of Americans found abroad.

1. The traveling gentleman/lady adventurer, who has gone thither to experience the wonders of the world and has done a bit of reading so as to better appreciate the marvels about them in a strange and foreign place, who conducts themselves quietly and cheerfully, polite because this isn't their homeland nor do they know these people around them.

2. (brace yourselves) The Amerrykin Toorist who is here ta see the castles and stuff, and wants more ketchup and mayo, and talks and points and swears LOUDLY everywhere, and yells about why nobody will "talk english" to them.

These second ones we profoundly apologize for, because , if it makes you feel any better, when through with their VeeKayShun these people go HOME, and WE have to cope with them.
We feel your pain.

Respectfully,
The Saner Half of the USA.

You make it sound as if pre-reading and research are part of not being SC (or ST's, sucky travelers.) Some people are perfectly capable of being polite and perfectly good travelers without having spent half their last couple months doing research. Some people just go to see and experience the place but don't have any desire to go in with prior knowledge. They want to be wowed by the stuff, or they have no interest in the facts and figures, they just want to be there. Either way, they aren't automatically sucky, so don't lump them with option B.

[Jpurple]

Rincewind would add "Please, don't kill me !" to the essentials sentence to know when travelling abroad.

Yes, there are circumstances where that would be a good phrase to know... the border crossing between Thailand and Cambodia comes to mind...

My husband and I used to play a game when we lived in and traveled around Thailand- we called it 'Call the tourist' -and we've found that Australian tourists are the easiest to identify, usually because they're so damn cheerfully loud! Only annoying American tourists are easily identifiable- the polite ones are much more of a challenge! (unless they're wearing t-shirts from home, anyway, but we consider that cheating)

[AdminAssistant]

Also, in French, you'd better ask "Où sont les toilettes ?" rather than "Où est la salle de bains ?", unless you're in a private home, where the privy often is in an actual bathroom.

Yes, I was told by my French teachers to be very careful how you ask the question - because asking "Où sont les toilettes?" in a private home is basically the same as saying - "Yo! Where's the crapper?" "Où est le WC?" is another option I think, but I don't know how, um, classy it is.

Oh, and I believe it would be, "Je voudrais un bier" or (for me) "Je voudrais une verre de vin rouge"

And now I have a desire to re-watch the last part of Eddie Izzard's "Dress to Kill" ("La singe est sur la branche!" "La singe? Ou est la singe?" )

[Samaliel]

Um, actually no. I wonder what made them think that. Asking "Où sont les toilettes ?" isn't rude in any way, if your tone isn't either. Unless you're at some pretty uptight people's place. Also, for some reason I never quite fathomed, we tend to use "WC" as a plural word, so it wouild be "Où sont les WC ?", and pronounce it "veh-ceh". "Where's the crapper ?" would be "C'est où les chiottes ?"

And your "bière" is missing an 'e'. I won't bother you with a the accent, because I know they're a pain in the butt to type out of a Qwerty keyboard.

Also, the approximation of French I can see in popular media (TV? movies, books) makes me laugh as well as cringe. I know French can be a tricky language, but is it that hard to make sure your text is grammatically correct and makes sense ?

[mischugenah]

Yes. Yes it is. Most people say the best phrase is "I'd like to order a beer" But I think it's "Where's the bathroom?"

I've always believed it's vitally important to know 6 phrases before visiting a forign country:
1) I'm hungry
2) I'm thirsty
3) I'm lost
4) I'm sick
5) I don't understand your language
6) (of course) where's the bathroom?

[AdminAssistant]

And your "bière" is missing an 'e'. I won't bother you with a the accent, because I know they're a pain in the butt to type out of a Qwerty keyboard.

Oops! It's been over a year since I took French II, and I didn't double check.

This reminds me of a recent scene from my favorite obsession tv show, NCIS (apologies for missing accents):

Ziva: (to bartender) Uno mas, s'il vous plait!
Guy: You're mixing languages...
Ziva: And liquors

[Victoria J]

Dear friends and neighbors of the world community,

There are two kinds of Americans found abroad.

There does seem to be a particular split for Americans. Any American you meet abroad seems to be either a complete idiot with the cultural sensitivity of a halibut or terribly well travelled and knowledgeable so they make me feel like a complete idiot. You seem to lack a middle ground. Other countries produce people across the whole spectrum.

American tourists tend to be the most insulting in the UK - at least when other countries seem to think they can talk about our country abusively in front of us there is a good chance we really can't understand them.

I have certainly been embarrassed by watching people from the UK abroad. Our bad tourists have no language skills (sadly applies to me too), don't really like change and hold other cultures up to ridiculous standards. (Like the person who came back from a Moroccan market complaining that "at the end of the day they just want to sell you stuff", unlike say Tesco or Marks and Spencers ).

I met an elderly couple once who had been on a trip to China. One day the tour group had a choice - they could see the great wall or they could go to a duvet factory and by cheap duvets. They were the only people who saw the great wall...

Worst non-UK tourists I've seen :

We once tried to give directions to an entire coach of French tourists where not a single one of them would try and speak any English, not even the guide or driver. (This is in England). We did our best in French.

A more common problem is that the confident person in the group, and the person who actually understands the language, are never the same. Best example were a group of Japanese women my mother helped - one was bold but took several attempts to get "hello" understood - while another seemed to understand everything we said and kept whispering at her what to say She eventually led them to where they were going as it was near, and as she is tall I got to watch her walk off with this circle of ladies all about a foot shorter surrounding her...

Worst ever though was watching French tourists in Morocco. I think it's just different cultural standards - they seem quite rude by British standards (less willing to wait or queue, make more direct demands, - probably not rude at all within the culture), but the Moroccan standards are much higher than ours. This is a culture where buying something can take half an hour to negotiate, have a cup of tea, swap gifts - so as I stood waiting for a hotel employee to finish dealing with someone on the phone so I could ask for my room key I was fairly horrified to see these people just walk up and throw keys at the staff if they were going out, or click their fingers impatiently when returning.

Oh - and the Americans who don't understand that people don't necessarily want their currency. Small tips in a currency that needs to be exchanged can be as bad as nothing.

Victoria J

[Samaliel]

When you say French II, is it French as a 2nd language ? Anyway, I guess that if you don't really have to use the language, you can lose a lot quite quickly.

Great quote, at any rate. I love that show too, especially the way Ziva keeps messing up her metaphors. (And, again, I won't blame you for missing accents, especially that one because it is one of the trickiest ones. I forget it as often as not.)